Democrats, who labored to get the Affordable Care Act through Congress in the first year of the Obama presidency, said they wanted the administration to share details of what’s wrong and when it will be fixed.

White House press secretary Jay Carney says there was “no question” that the White House did not know how bad the web site’s rollout would be. “While we knew that there would be some glitches and said that we expected some problems, we did not know until the problems manifested themselves after the launch that they would be as significant as they turned out to be,” he said Wednesday.

***

Six voters in ten describe implementation of ObamaCare as “a joke,” and more voters than not say problems with the government’s health insurance website are so bad someone should be fired, according to a Fox News national poll.

The new poll, released Wednesday, also finds a majority continues to dislike President Obama’s signature achievement: 51 percent of voters use negative terms to describe the health care law, saying it is either “a step backward” or “disastrous.” That’s down two percentage points from 53 percent in August. On the other side, 44 percent describe ObamaCare positively, either as “wonderful” or “progress.” It was 43 percent two months ago…

Is it so bad someone should be fired? By a margin of 49-38 percent, voters agree with President Obama’s former press secretary Robert Gibbs as well as others who say the problems on the government’s website are a firing offense. Another seven percent say it’s too soon to say.

***

At Healthworks, a system of community health centers in Virginia, trained navigators have been able to get a few people signed up on the federal website. But navigators there have also turned to paper, says Carol Jameson, associate CEO for the clinics.

“We were going to wait until the website was up,” Jameson says. “Then, when that wasn’t happening, we decided to mail the applications in.”

The team at Community Clinic, Inc., a network of free and low-cost medical clinics, has talked with 1,300 people so far, Korrick estimated.

But not a single one has made it through the entire enrollment process online…

One woman got angry at the delays, says Apoorva Srivastata, who’s assigned to a clinic in nearby Takoma Park, Md. “She was, like, ‘I have given up hope,’” Srivastata says. “She had taken public transport to get there, and she had her kids with her. I told her not to give up and that she has time.”

***

[O]ne senior House Democrat who spoke with CNN following the meeting didn’t rule it out [extending the enrollment deadline].

“I’m not prepared to say that now. We’re going to have to find out,” said longtime Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, a healthcare reform patriarch, when asked about pushing back the enrollment deadline or removing the fine…

Those politics are exactly why Obama likely couldn’t and wouldn’t get rid of Sebelius, even if he wanted to: Democrats know the people opposed to the law would never let another person who backed the law through unscathed and would instead use the confirmation hearings to relitigate the Affordable Care Act — to subpoena reams of information, chase headline-grabbing leads and, overall, do whatever they could to delay or derail it…

And not just among Republicans — the thinking in some quarters is that, despite Democratic control of the Senate, vulnerable Democrats might benefit from getting to cast a vote against Obamacare by voting against any nominee. Avoiding that vote, people familiar with the situation say, is part of why there has been eagerness to see her stay in place for a second term, despite whatever problems or desire for change existed…

“If you’re charged with bringing in one of the biggest laws we’ve had in a generation, effectively taking over 18 percent of our economy, you claim that it’s going to be on time, you’re given warnings that it isn’t, but then you do it anyway,” Ryan said. “I think some people should be held responsible.”

Now health care advocates, progressive activists and liberal writers are left to defend a broken website that they were just as blindsided to discover as the rest of the public, despite years of going to the mat for Obama’s signature achievement.

And while many groups aren’t publicly grumbling, some are left with real problems to manage…

“One thing that’s troubled by the glitches in the computer system is that the most effective way to teach people about how they’re going to get help is by showing them others who they can relate to and who are comparably situated getting enrolled,” [Ron Pollack] said. “Since we haven’t had as many people enrolled, that’s not been as effective.”

***

This is perhaps the biggest problem facing Obamacare and probably will haunt it long after the technical problems at HealthCare.gov are fixed. Because of all the noise and disinformation, President Obama and the Democrats don’t just own Obamacare as a political issue. They own health care. Anytime something bad happens — premiums rise, or employers change plans or pare coverage — Obamacare will be blamed, even if the new law had nothing to do with the change.

“It’s one of the most frustrating things,” says Brad Woodhouse, the former Democratic National Committee official who runs Americans United for Change. “If anybody has a problem with health care, Republicans say it has to be a problem with Obamacare.”

Does Woodhouse believe Democrats now own health care? “In some ways we probably do, which is unfair,” he said. “Nobody said Obamacare was a panacea for everything.”

***

Nowadays, rooting against the Democrats is tantamount to rooting against America… But it’s a fallacy that any failure has, by default, a negative consequence. Attaching a phony moral significance to the word “failure” is, as anyone who’s watched politics or witnessed what bad legislation can do, nothing more than a way to smear your opponent’s intentions. It’s a weak attempt to bully those who disagree with you into rhetorical submission.

When it comes to Obamacare, it’s likely that most failure boosters have no desire to see “hardworking, middle-class families” or, for that matter, even rich lazy families, suffer unnecessarily. When confronted by this false choice, plenty of middle-class families are, no doubt, rooting for failure, as well. If an American believes Obamacare is unhelpful, destructive or counterproductive, its failure is success…

My hope is that Obamacare– not to mention, numerous other initiatives supported by the president — fails for a whole host of reasons. And not only do I have my fingers crossed that Obamacare fails in the way that most policy fails us, but I hope it fails so hard that any residual perception among voters that any part of it was prudent policy is completely eliminated. Anything less may mean that a substantial enough block of Americans will continue to operate under the false impression that top-down technocratic control of their decisions is a good idea. And that, would be a genuine failure.

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I think the first and principle objective is to repeal Obamacare before it does lasting, fundamental damage to our health care system, to our individual liberty, to the relationship each of us has with his or her doctor.

Karl Henninger has a great editorial this am at the WSJ about how absolutely no one anywhere can trust this president.

esr1951 on October 24, 2013 at 6:46 AM

It appears diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia and Germany are particularly fragile right now with no real hope that Susan Rice or John Kerry are the right individuals to smooth things over. The Brits are suspicious. The French are launching an investigation as are several other nations.

In short, what happens if our entire foreign relations structure is upended over Obama’s spying on them. Would that be enough to get rid of the lazy stupid coward. It is one thing when Venezuela is hostile to the US. France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and the UK is another matter entirely.

The fact of the matter is one of the most fundamental things wrong with Obamacare is manditory coverage and uniform pricing. Human beings do not all have the same healthcare needs yet Obamacare treats us all as indistinguisible units. So….. everybody is forced to pay for pregnancy, rehab, and other items regardless of gender, age, or medical need.

This wealth redistribution scheme is the heart of funding Obamacare and also the singlemost thing that must be changed.

It is socialization and it apppears that more Americans have awakened as to just how intrusive and how big an enemy to personal freedom this misbegotten “signature legislation” is going to be, unless it is stopped.

It is socialization and it apppears that more Americans have awakened as to just how intrusive and how big an enemy to personal freedom this misbegotten “signature legislation” is going to be, unless it is stopped.

kingsjester on October 24, 2013 at 7:17 AM

So is that an increase in the number arsonists, kidnappers, or terrorists?

IMO, history will prove that Ted Cruz was right and the surrender weasels were wrong to cave when they did.

IMO, history will prove that Ted Cruz was right and the surrender weasels were wrong to cave when they did.

Happy Nomad on October 24, 2013 at 7:20 AM

People who are too scared to yield their leverage when they have it make even bigger fools of themselves with they negotiate that power away – McConnell and Boehner are unfit for leadership positions, and anyone who argues against this is retarded…

As the USS Obamacare continues to sink, it is going to be fun, watching the backpedaling, including around here.

kingsjester on October 24, 2013 at 7:29 AM

Indeed. Obamacare was imploding independent of the government slimdown. Had the surrender caucus held out another week they would have had all the leverage they needed to get a delay in the individual mandate at a minimum.

People who are too scared to yield their leverage when they have it make even bigger fools of themselves with they negotiate that power away

Anti-Control on October 24, 2013 at 7:33 AM

McConnell and Boehner don’t seem to understand that they were given that leverage to LEAD. Instead they are so wrapped up in establishment politics that the only thing they care about is keeping that leverage. So, at the very moment we needed the GOP to take a stand they caved completely, gave the usual vow about “next time,” and muttered some crap about living to fight another day.

I’s not only painful to watch them get rolled by morally inferior, pathologically lying dingbats like Piglosi, Reid, and Choom, it’s painful to think about the damage cowards like Boehner and McConnell end up causing millions of others by their lack of vision/judgement.

Snark. The most helpful of all reactions. I know that “Hillary” loves it.

To anyone who believes that they are in a Movie Theater watching a drama unfold – my sincerenst wish is that THEIR children and relatives are among THE FIRST CRUSHED by the actions of this government – and that THEY get to watch them suffer.

People who are too scared to yieldwield their leverage when they have it make even bigger fools of themselves with they negotiate that power away – McConnell and Boehner are unfit for leadership positions, and anyone who argues against this is retarded…

Anti-Control on October 24, 2013 at 7:33 AM

Fixed that (important) one for myself – it just struck me out of the blue that I screwed it up! :)